Monthly Archive for June, 2009

Activities Kids can participate in to Improve Time Management Skills

Name some important lessons that children can learn that will benefit them tremendously throughout their lives, people will often overlook how important time management and task prioritizing skills are.

Have them draw illustrations that show the priority of the day’s events.

If you want to teach children anything that’s new, a very effective way to do this is to turn the subject into a game. Have them start by drawing pictures of things that they do every day that have priority in their lives. This can be done by having the children take a blank sheet of paper and dividing it into 4 squares. The next step is to have the children write in each square the day’s events according to their priority.

Teach priority by having them organize objects based on their priority.

Include different colored containers in this exercise and have the child place objects into each of the containers according to their priority, like: schoolwork, material for chores and toys.

Use time limits
When limits (like time limits) are set children often respond well to them and so try using a timer to let the children know how much time they should spend doing their homework, playing or chores around the house.

The Shadow Knows

As you the parent go about your daily activity, allow your child to follow you as if they were your shadow. Along the way fill them in on what it is you are doing and the importance and priority of each particular task. Encourage them to take notes or draw pictures along the way. Once the day is over, have a conversation with your child about the order in which you chose to do the activities.

Make up a fun quiz
Create a game where each question in regard to prioritizing activities, has three possible choices with only one right answer. When the correct choice is made rewards are given.

See also Time Management Games for Kids

Have a freakishly fun time in: Freaky Creatures

This game comprises vivid graphics and a complex story line as your alien creatures are brought to life in an online world of intergalactic warfare. Your battle ready creatures are genetically enhanced to suit your exact battle needs as you see fit.
Freaky Creature truly sets the bar in (MMO) massive multiplayer online games, where you are able to do battle online with others in a cross-platform environment where thousands of players can be involved in a game simultaneously.
The more battles you creature fights, the stronger he becomes through his fighting experience. You are also able to choose the type of power that your creature will use in battle.
Choose and customize your own lair, which is basically your creature’s home setting; be it fire, ice or anything in between, your creature’s lair is situated on one of the five planets in the freaky solar system.
Earn creature credits; through fighting battles and playing mini-games which you can use to purchase a pet companion that will not only keep you company but will accompany you onto the battle field later on in the game.
This game is rate E for everyone.

Link to buy Freaky Creatures game

Build a Floating Empire in: Youda Marina

Youda Marina Game DownloadIf saltwater runs thorough your veins like so many, you will certainly enjoy the challenges that await you in this time management game, where with the guidance of the salty ole seaman will guide you through the process of building and developing your very own marina and increasing in size to suit all your visitors needs.
You’ll start off by building the very basic infrastructure where you are able to dock the various sized water crafts as they enter your newly built marina. In order to make upgrades to your marina, you’ll need to generate more income by docking more boats. Care must me taken not to run out of money when all your docks are full, otherwise you won’t be able to make the needed upgrades to keep your existing customers happy.
At times, you will need to address complaints from the boat owners docked at your marina, they might say that a hotel to stay in would be nice or a bar built on shore for a place for them to relax and have a drink would be nice.
What can really be a challenge for you in this game is to try and make sure that all the boats wishing to dock at your marina have a place to do so since they are your sole source of income. In order to accomplish this you must always be ready to build more docks. Careful not to over-extend with needless upgrades since some of the more beneficial upgrades like a large hotel for your guests to stay might just run you quite a bit of money.
There are four different costal layouts where you can start to build your empire and serve the needs of all types of sea-going vessels as well as deal with the occasional maritime emergency that may arise.
Time management, money management and responsible costal development are all keys to success here. It’s best to start the game in the relaxed mode the first time through, since the learning curve can seem quite steep.

Link to page for download Youda Marina game

Have a Good Olde Time in: Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe

Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe Game DownloadIn this time management game you come up with the revolutionary idea of opening up a sandwich shop since the sandwich is a brand new invention. An unscrupulous investor approaches you and offers to fund your venture in exchange for half the profits, with one additional condition; since you are a young single attractive woman, if the business should fail, you must give him your hand in marriage. This is even more incentive to succeed in Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe.
The game begins simple enough in a rustic 17th Century store with one counter an oven to bake the bread and prep area in which to assemble these culinary delights.
As your customers start to line-up, a picture appears over each their heads of their order and it’s up to you to fill them as quickly as you can. You can click on future tasks in advance of completing them in order to focus on you next sequence of moves. Always to remember to keep an eye on your baked bread inventory since to run out might just cost you the round of play and you’ll have to repeat it all over again.
As with many time management games, with each completed round of play you are awarded points or a monetary value that can be exchanged for upgrades to your shop. You are presented a list a few items of various prices and each have its own benefit to make the business more efficient. It’s up to you whether you want to go ahead and splurge on these upgrades or perhaps save for something more extravagant in future rounds.
With every level of play you must earn more and more money in order to complete the level. With every level of play one extra item is added to the menu for you to serve to your customers like a different choice of meat, cheese or juice.
While in playing, just keep in mind that this sandwich business had better be successful; otherwise you’ll find yourself married to your creepy business partner as was previously promised.

Link for download Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe game

Tips for playing time management games

There in no denying the fact that most people will find time management games fun to play with the vast variety of titles to choose from like; Nanny Mania, Mystic Emporium, Supermarket Management or My Tribe and many more titles to choose from. The goals in most of these games are pretty much the same; you must complete specific tasks in a certain amount of time in order to progress to the next level.
You first step in finding the games you might be most interested in playing is do a web search to find the time management that are just to your liking. The most popular game sites are Big Fish Games and Real Arcades. Both of these sites have a massive selection of time management games and are available for download, safe and of course virus free.
When trying to decide which games you want to try, you can spend some time reading the descriptions of each game or do a more extensive search and read the reviews others have written about the games you are most interested in.
Make sure that your computer meets all the minimum requirements to play the game. Prior to download a list of these requirements is given, so make sure that your system meets them in order for the game to function properly on you computer system.
Many of these time management games offer a full one hour of free play time in order for you to better decide if that’s the game you want to purchase. When your hour is up you can decide to buy the unlimited version and if so, you may continue in the game where you left off once the purchase is made.
Begin play by first choosing whether you want to begin in the free time mode; where you are given a limitless amount of time in order to complete the various tasks, or whether to play in the story mode where you must complete thing on time in order to be awarded points. May we suggest that you start with the story mode in order to get the full experience of the game?
As you progress through the many levels of play, points will be earned, and with them you’ll be able to make your tasks easier by upgrading your facilities, equipment or even adding a staff member or two. Of course, it’s your choices and ability to upgrade your surrounding all depends on the game you wish to play. Much in the same way you’d re-invest profit back into your business.
In some games, time management and money management go hand in hand, like in the game; Build-A-Lot, where an amount of start-up capital investment is needed in order to complete the construction project. This game, as in real life, requires both successful time and money management in order to progress to the next level.
A common trend among these games is that you progress throughout certain levels of play until you’ve reached the highest level; at that point you’ve won and are given a score. In others time management games you are only allowed a certain amount of lives and once they’ve all “expired” then its game over.

Some good reasons to start playing time management games

If this is the first time you’ve heard of time management games you may be interested to know that these games are more that just good fun. You may ran across the subject of time management if you are a frequent web surfer and know a bit about these games already.

For the critics who suggest that playing computer game is a complete waste of time ought to have a look at time management games. They may discover that these games can actually be helpful in developing time management skills.

When time management games are better understood, and what they are all about, then the games can prove to be most beneficial to those interested in playing them.

Time management games are often broadly described and so searching the web with the key words “Time Management Games” will yield a wide variety of results.

Time management games are written with so many different subjects, from; running a sushi shop to keeping the traveling carnival going or even forward thinking games; where your goal is to make the community as eco-friendly as possible.

So you want to get started playing games are not sure how to begin you search through the thousands of results you will get in Google? Most likely you will find website that allow at least one hour or of free play per game and are downloadable straight from the web site. A lot of these games are also available at retail outlets if that how you prefer to shop.

Some online game companies lure you in by allowing you to play free for a full hour to get only a taste for the game. Once your hour is over you are given the option of buying the full version and continuing with play indefinitely, this tactic is nothing new but certainly effective within the online gaming industry.

The vast array of time management game subjects and different formats is forever growing and the ideas for new time management games are limitless and new ones are being developed everyday.

When you search for time management games online you’re sure to find at least a few that match the things that you are most interested in, from sports to music to business management. Even though the concept of time management seems challenging for even adult players, there is even time management games designed for especially for children.

One issue we haven’t addressed to this point is how must fun these time management games can be and the sense of accomplishment you may experience when you are able to achieve success in them.

Out of necessity, you will have no other choice but to learn how to manage your time more efficiently and this learned behavior should be fun to pick-up.

Contrary to the general consensus, time management are more than just a time wasting form of recreation, they can truly help you in developing your real-life time management skills and so to consider these games a time waster would be the complete opposite of the truth.

If you want to see for your self if time management game can be beneficial to you it’s certainly worth a look and for the most part free of cost or obligation. In fact a brief web search and a couple of mouse clicks should have you playing in no time.

Often times, time management games are a hybrid of puzzles, simulators and arcade like play. Another thing that makes them unique is that the controls are quite simple with only the cursor being used to accomplish the various tasks while following a well defined storyline.

Work Your Way to the Top in: Supermarket Management

Supermarket Management Game DownloadKate has just graduated for the university and is ready to enter the work force. After a job search she finds herself an entry-level position at the local supermarket. Not the most glamorous of occupations but she knows if she put in the extra effort she can work her way up to a management position in no time flat.
The object of the game is simple enough; keep the customers happy and the money will continue to flow in. This is accomplished by keeping the shelves stocked, working the register, helping the customers find an item on one of the shelves and return the empty shopping carts to the front of the store ready for the new customers to arrive.
With each round of play you must earn a preset amount of sales and points are awarded for doing so quickly with highest amount of customer satisfaction. With these points earned you are able to make upgrades to the store like larger shelves, more carts, or a gumball machine. It is not required to spend all of your points after each round but can instead save up for more expensive upgrades like hiring a new employee or the ability to move faster of stock the shelves more quickly.
There is something new added with each round of play, like a deli where you must serve the customer by giving them just the right deli item this is done by moving your cursor over a choice of items, when you are in the right spot they will indicate that’s what they want by nodding or smiling.
Supermarket Management starts you off at a fast pace and with every round of play becomes increasingly faster so choose your upgrades carefully to compensate for this.
To be busy at all times is your key to success; in fact you will lose points for being idle. You are able stack your tasks up in order by just clicking on the item or area that needs to be taken care of first. Supermarket Management require 100% focus and a keen eye to stay ahead of the customers, and prove that you are indeed –management material.

Link for download Supermarket Management game

Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune

Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune GameIf you ever wanted to experience a toys eye view of the world then you’ve got it here with the game Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune when you, as Timmy are miniaturized to do battle against all of your green toy soldiers.

You weapons are non-lethal except when it comes to the little green army men that you’re on a mission to annihilate. You start off with a foam dart gun and your arsenal gradually increasing in fire power and moves on to squirt guns and then tennis and bowling balls. The action continues throughout 3 different areas of the house and then outside into the garden area. Within each area of battle zone there are five different missions.

This game teaches basic logic and special relation while transitioning through the many rooms of the house and all levels of play. Available on Amazon for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PS2 game platform. For gamers aged 5 and up.

Playing time management games online can lead to better time skills in the real world, here are 8 ways to improvement:

Not only are time management games fun and interesting to play but there is an added benefit that many may not realize until they’ve spent some time playing them and applied some of the techniques they developed in game play to real life situations.

Online time management games come in a variety of forms and if you do a web search you’ll see that these time management games are only limited by the developer’s imagination in the creation of the games. In one time management game you might be operating your own shop or restaurant, running the family wine making business or building a real estate empire. What makes all of these games similar is that you are only given a certain amount of time in order to complete the various tasks and finish games.

There is a vast variety of time management games available as well as different levels of difficulty. Many of these games are free of cost and available for instant download but the more interesting ones you’ll most likely have to pay for.

In order to get the most out of playing these time management games there are 8 things that you might want to consider before getting started in order to develop your time management skills along the way. I don’t want this to read too much like a 12 step program but you might see some similarities in this.

1. Understand that you have a challenge in front of you.
As with any situation, and that does not exclude time management, you must admit to yourself first that you need work in this area. If you never seem to be able to finish an assignment on time or always wait until the last minute to get started, could be good indications that that you need work in this area.

2. Make the commitment to change.
Once you are aware change is needed and you realize that the time management techniques that you are currently employing is not working, you realize that you have no other choice other than to take some form of action to make this change stick.

3. Stay the course.
Consistency is the key to being successful in almost everything we do and this is certainly true when it come to improving our time management skills. However it’s best to avoid being driven into overwhelm; in other words, baby-steps at first.

4. Make a daily task list.
The least favorable and largest task on you list should be accomplished first. Just to get that one item checked off your list will give you a great sense of accomplishment and relief. Update your list of tasks daily in order to get things done on time, avoiding another wasted day and the regret that goes along with it.

5. Take advantage of the time management tools that are available to you.
If you were able to take a look at how high-level executives and others in equally important time-sensitive positions manage their time you would see that most take full advantage of tools that are available to them for this purpose. It used to be, we only had an alarm clock and a diary to manage our time but now in the information age there are so many things available to most of us, like cell phones that can keep track of everything for us, not to mention computer programs that remind us of important events and deadlines and schedules.

6. Just say no to non-productivity.
If there is something important that you must accomplish and the phone rings and you spend a couple of hours chatting about nothing related to what you need to accomplish, a polite to say no would be; “sorry, I’m really busy right now” would have prevented that wasted time which might put you two hours behind schedule.

7. Prevention through organizing
Keeping things filed and put in their proper place will be a great time saver when you don’t have to look for a lost file or document later. It will take you a lot less time to put them in their right place the first time than having to go back and look for them later. Also, once items are in there place don’t move them unless it is absolutely necessary.

8. Consult with the pros
Mentoring and coaching is big business these days and for a good reason; they are very helpful. If you ask most successful people these days they will probably tell you that they were coached or mentored at some point in there life. This type of professional help can be very affordable but more importantly effective. It maybe to your benefit to have someone there looking over your shoulder or perhaps giving you a push when you need it.

You old habits might be hard to break; you might just want to start off by playing one of the many time management games available online.

A Few Safety Tips for Parents When it Comes to Gaming Systems for Your Kids

Computer gaming systems like the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii are some of the of the most popular birthday and Christmas gifts for children these days and they allow gamers the freedom of playing a huge variety of video games without ever leaving the home. These types of gifts don’t come cheap, so some considerations must be given before the purchase is made.

When conducting your own research into which game system to buy, parents should also think about issues regarding safety, since the nature of interactive and social games, mean the young player may be exposed to potential hazards and further more, if the game platform is connected online, they will be interacting directly with other players in the anonymous cyber word.

Needless to say, parents must lead by example and set standards and guidelines for their children to follow regarding the nature of the games they will be playing and prohibit games that may be inappropriate or intended for a more mature audience.

It is vital parents apply these values and safety measure in regard to gaming system that we bring into our homes so that the positives from this far outweigh the potential negatives.

Perhaps the first measure of safety that a parent can implement once the game console has found its way into the home is to limit the amount of play time children are allowed with the game system. It’s easy for a child’s life to become out of balance once one of these game consoles have entered the home and they can easily begin to neglect other important aspects of their lives like schoolwork, exercising and socializing with friends.

The second thing you might want to consider is to avoid violent games and replace them with those that involve logic, critical thinking and problem solving skills. Games involving musical instruments or any type of game relating to sports can be equally as interesting and challenging. Let your kids know up front that you will be censoring what games they are exposed to and are concerned about their safety to avoid dealing with any difficult questions or misunderstandings in the future.

Another safety tip is to make sure the game console stays in an area where a parent can easily observe what game in being played by the kids.

As a parent the best thing to do is to just use good common sense when making these choices for their children and after all, these games are supposed to be fun and entertaining and never harmful.

If you’re buying the game for younger kids, the plug and play type is probably the best way to go since it will certainly eliminate the online hazard.